Coach Zoe Stay on top of your fitness by cutting the excuses and using the ultimate fitness hack for moms, exercise without leaving the house.
Regardless of the lifestyle you lead, being a mom is busy. I’m sure we can agree it’s hard to make time for yourself. Let alone for your health and fitness. In order to “do it all,” you must be efficient with your time.
Getting to the gym, writing out workouts, and waiting around for equipment is not the most effective use of your time. In fact, it is what causes most of us to fall off track or lack consistency. Sure, you had that kind of time to waste before motherhood, but not now! Well, as a mom and a coach, I’m here to relieve you of your guilt. You never have to go to the gym again! Whaaaaat? Yes, I said it. Skip. The. Gym. Now you can throw away all of the excuses that keep you from getting the results you want.
Now I bet you’re wondering, how do I get fit without going to the gym? What you need to ask is, how can I exercise without leaving the house? With home workouts my friend! As someone who practically lived in the gym for years, I can tell you I actually enjoy my home workouts SO MUCH MORE.
Benefits exercise without leaving the house
- Complete flexibility.
- You can workout whatever time is best for you. No waiting for the gym to open, working around childcare availability, or rushing around a class schedule.
- Control over your environment.
- You don’t have to squeeze between other members for some space or wait around for equipment to open up.
- Lack of audience.
- You can feel assured that nobody is judging your form or outfit. You can feel free to work hard and breathe heavily to get your sweat on. There’s no pressure to look or act a certain way.
- Increased confidence.
- When it’s just you at home, you won’t be looking around at others to compare yourself to. As a trainer, I have often times seen members lose confidence because they were comparing the start of their fitness journey to someone else that was 7 years in. All you will have to compare to is yourself! You can focus solely on your own progress and being better than your last workout.
- Motivation boost.
- When you are in the comfort of your own home, you’re more likely to try new things and get out of your fitness comfort zone. You may actually try a zumba or kickboxing workout without feeling silly for trying. (Psssst! I have the BEST workout motivation for moms HERE.)
All of these elements create a recipe for consistency. Any kind of success comes from consistent patterns. Good habits. You will be far more likely to enjoy your workouts and stick to a routine when you workout at home.
What are the disadvantages of working out at home?
Oh my goodness, where do I begin? Well, to start, you won’t be traveling anywhere, so you will have to find a way to kill the extra time you saved. You may become too fit since you will be trying new things and sticking to a routine. You will miss out on all those awkward gym conversations while you wait for equipment to free up. What’s worst is all of the money you’re going to have lying around since you won’t be paying for a monthly membership. Uhhh those are disadvantages, right? Gotchya!
On a serious note, there are some true disadvantages of home workouts. Depending on your finances and environment you may be limited on space and equipment (it can really get costly). Even if you have the funds, most people don’t have the space for weight or cardio machines, a squat rack, or a full set of dumbbells. But do you really need all of that to get in an effective workout?
Are home workouts without equipment effective?
Large facilities and a wide variety of equipment is a bonus to gym workouts. However, equipment is not necessary to get an effective workout or long lasting results. The key to effective home workouts without equipment is progressive overload. Progressive overload is the process of altering training stress as the body adapts.
Or, shocking the body as I like to say. Not literally, of course! It means that, as you become “fitter” (i.e. your body becomes more efficient at exercise) you need to switch it up and stress your body in a way that it is not used to.
For example, say you are doing a lot of distance running. Your body will become used to that style of training, intensity, and duration, causing you to eventually plateau if continued. You can shock the body by increasing your distance but decreasing intensity (long walks), increasing intensity but shortening duration (sprints), or by switching to a different method like swimming.
At the gym, it would be easy to make these adjustments simply by increasing weight, using a different cardio machine, or trying a new fitness class. When you are at home you may not have any equipment to use in the first place.
Ways we can cause progressive overload for effective home workouts without equipment is to adjust our intensity, duration, method, tempo, frequency, and volume. That could look like doing squat jumps instead of squats. Changing reps or sets of an exercise. Altering rest and/or work time during a workout (HIIT vs. circuit training). Focusing on a muscle group more or less often. Changing the speed or range of motion of an exercise (affecting time under tension). Or even mixng up the style, like plyometrics versus strength versus cardio versus kickboxing versus balance and stability.
As long as you workout in a variety of formats and are sure to hit the entire body throughout the week, you will keep your body guessing and continue to see results. I make this super easy by offering a wide variety of No Equipment Workouts on my youtube channel. From strength to cardio, upper body to lower body, HIIT to mobility and everything in between. You will have access to all kinds of workouts that will challenge your body in a different way each time. All you have to do is pick and you can get in your exercise without leaving the house!
How can I shape my body at home without equipment?
You can successfully shed fat, tone your muscles, and improve fitness without equipment. In order to shape your body and create a lean physique (as opposed to what is known as “skinny fat”), you are going to need to shed some fat and build some muscle. This requires a combinations of resistance training and cardio.
Although it takes a little more effort than jumping onto your nearest treadmill or grabbing a set of dumbbells off the weight rack, both can be done without equipment. Even from the comfort of your living room. This is with a variety of calisthenics and workout manipulation.
Calisthenics are bodyweight exercises that rely on your own balance, strength, and endurance to complete. Some basic examples are squats, lunges, jumping jacks, push ups, sit ups, and planks. What I love about calisthenics is that they can be varied or modified to adjust for intensity and fitness level. We can manipulate the speed that an exercise is done at to adjust the time under tension and induce a different strength response and/or the cardiac output. A standard squat (strength) can be switched into a squat jump (power and cardio). A push up can be done on the knees for a more beginner level, or with elevated feet to make it more advanced. Speaking of which, I have an advanced upper body calisthenics workout if you’re up for the challenge!
Not only can we adjust the exercises themselves, but the programming of the workout. We can do long intervals that include high rep counts for a more endurance and fat burning style of training. Or we can do high intensity efforts in short bursts for more a strength and metabolism boosting style of training. Both styles help promote fat loss and lean muscle growth for increased overall fitness and a lean physique.
So you don’t need to feel limited by your lack of equipment. In fact, you are going to have more diversity in your training than the person who does the same routine of weighted squats, bench press, and 20 minutes of treadmill at the gym. You will have so many different ways to adjust and control your exercise without leaving the house. To get started, try out this calisthenics workout for beginners.
How can I exercise without leaving the house when I have young kids at home?
Having little ones around can make home workouts a new kind of challenge. Finding the time to exercise and avoiding distractions become a whole new ball game with young kids. If you find yourself missing workouts because of this, try adjusting your routine, being flexible in your schedule, getting your kids involved, and making use of home workout videos to balance fitness and mom life for amazing results. In fact, I have a complete breakdown of how to make your fitness a priority even with little ones. Check out my post Successful Workouts As A Toddler Mom for top notch tips and methods to keep you on track.
Home workouts might have a bit of a learning curve, but can really be what you need to stay on top of your fitness. Take advantage of the extra time, money, and fun you will have by getting in your exercise without leaving the house.
